Martial Cultivator

Chen Chao dragged that long bench to one side of the long street and sat down beneath countless paper lanterns.

Under the illumination of those lanterns, the young man dressed in black had a somewhat distinctive bearing.

Weng Quan and Song Lian stood on Chen Chao’s left and right sides, and then a martial official dressed in an official robe brought Gu Shaofeng over.

This Young Mountain Lord of Luoshui Mountain was disheveled at this moment, with some bruises on his face, but there was still no particularly strange smell on him.

Chen Chao turned his head somewhat curiously and glanced at Weng Quan.

Weng Quan said somewhat unhappily, “I was just about to make him drink feces, but then he confessed.”

Chen Chao shook his head helplessly. Gu Shaofeng had probably been raised from childhood in the palm of the Luoshui Mountain’s Mountain Lord, so when had he ever suffered any hardship? Although drinking feces would not cause any harm to the body, as for the blow to a person’s spirit, how could an ordinary person withstand it?

His confession was within Chen Chao’s expectations.

In fact, Chen Chao already had many things within his grasp, and only needed to verify some minor details from Gu Shaofeng’s mouth.

Looking at this Young Mountain Lord who no longer had his former brilliance, Chen Chao said, “Go ahead, Fellow Daoist Gu, whatever you know, just say it. This official would quite like to hear it all.”

Gu Shaofeng looked at Chen Chao somewhat blankly, then gave a self-mocking smile. “Lord Warden Commander already knows everything, don’t you? Why bother asking?”

Chen Chao was too lazy to say anything more and merely glanced at Weng Quan.

Weng Quan turned around and left.

It had to be said that sometimes this fellow Weng Quan was simply too perceptive.

“Where is he going?”

Gu Shaofeng looked toward Weng Quan somewhat fearfully. During the interrogation earlier, the others had been fine, but this fellow really used whatever sinister method he could think of. He had brought up a whole pile of methods of torture, only to say in the end that none of those methods were actually necessary, and that all they needed to do was make him drink a spoonful of feces.

He had originally thought this fellow was only trying to scare him, but who would have thought that after a short while, he really came back carrying a spoonful of fresh feces.

Although Weng Quan did not say anything at this moment, he vaguely felt that something was wrong.

Chen Chao made a gesture of force-feeding feces.

Gu Shaofeng’s face instantly turned deathly pale. When he looked at Chen Chao again, his face was already full of pleading. “Lord Warden Commander, I will tell you everything I know, I will leave nothing out, I swear!”

Chen Chao said nothing, merely glancing at Song Lian.

Only then did Song Lian call out to his nephew.

Weng Quan looked regretful.

Chen Chao laughed and cursed, “You really can’t let that stuff go?”

......

......

“Because there is a cold vein beneath Luoshui Mountain, planting Arctic Grass around the cold vein has become a practice passed down through the generations of Luoshui Mountain.”

Arctic Grass is a spirit herb. Because its growing environment has strict requirements, and because many pills use this herb, its value has always been quite high. Because of the location of Luoshui Mountain’s cold vein, planting Arctic Grass has always been one of Luoshui Mountain’s industries. Every year, apart from some of the Arctic Grass being sent to the Infatuation Daoist Temple, most of the rest is either used themselves or sold throughout Great Liang.

Gu Shaofeng glanced at Chen Chao and continued, “In the past few years, Arctic Grass never had any trouble finding buyers. But a few years ago, several cold veins were discovered in Ying Prefecture one after another, and people began planting this thing in large quantities. After these past few years, not only has the price plummeted, there is even a great deal of Arctic Grass sitting in storage, unable to be sold.”

Gu Shaofeng sighed, “More than half of Luoshui Mountain’s annual expenses depend on this Arctic Grass. In its current state, it has become difficult for us to keep going.”

Chen Chao remained calm and silent.

Gu Shaofeng had originally wanted to play the victim in front of Chen Chao, but seeing that the young Lord Warden Commander before him remained unmoved, he gave an awkward smile.

“How did you get involved with the demon race?”

Chen Chao’s voice suddenly sounded out. He looked at Gu Shaofeng and asked, “How did selling spiritual herbs end up with you selling them into the Demon Domain?”

Gu Shaofeng frantically shook his head. “Lord Warden Commander, we have truly been wronged! How would we know that person was a spy from the Demon Domain! He only said he wanted a lot of Arctic Grass, and the price he offered was decent, so we sold it to him!”

Chen Chao raised an eyebrow. “The price was merely decent?”

Gu Shaofeng had just wanted to hoodwink his way through it, but then he saw those eyes filled with coldness and shuddered.

He suddenly could not get a word out.

Chen Chao extended a finger and tapped on the long bench, saying, “This official will speak for you. That person wanted you to investigate, while you were at it, the routes of the imperial court’s various convoys these days, how often grain and provisions were sent to the Northern Frontier, and things such as the number of troops being trained by the various prefectures and commanderies...”

Gu Shaofeng very much wanted to shake his head and say no at this moment, but seeing Chen Chao like this, there was no way he could say the word no.

So he could only change his wording. “I also don’t know what he wanted us to investigate these things for. I thought it wasn’t anything impor...ahh!”

Before he could finish speaking, Song Lian had already reached out and crushed his wrist.

Chen Chao looked at Gu Shaofeng and narrowed his eyes. “You really didn’t think it was anything serious?”

Gu Shaofeng’s face was full of pain. “Lord Warden... Commander, I saw that person wasn’t a demon. If he had been a demon, even if we had a hundred lives, we wouldn’t have dared to... do this!”

Chen Chao did not want to speak.

This kind of excuse could not necessarily fool even a three-year-old child, so how could it possibly fool him?

Even if the other party were not a demon, just how suspicious the contents were was enough that even a fool could figure it out.

“Lord Warden Commander, this bastard deserves to be hacked to pieces!”

A voice suddenly rang out from somewhere along the long street. Chen Chao raised his head and saw a head sticking out from the second-floor window of a small building across the street. It was a middle-aged man, furious at this moment. “These bastards aren’t any good! We risk our lives at the front, while they stab us in the back. They all deserve to die!”

Before Chen Chao could speak, another voice rang out from not far away.

“That’s right, Lord Warden Commander, these animals must be killed. They’re even more hateful than the demons!”

“Kill them!”

“Damn it, these bastards are worse than animals!”

Chen Chao listened to the successive voices and merely glanced at Song Lian.

Interrogating Gu Shaofeng in the middle of the street was only because Chen Chao felt that some truths needed to be known by people, at the very least, he could not leave the people of Danxiao Commandery with the reputation that he, Chen Chao, killed indiscriminately.

But he had never expected these people to be so agitated, because after all, this was Danxiao Commandery, a place where it was rumored that the Infatuation Daoist Temple’s Temple Master had more authority when he spoke than the Crown Prince.

But now it seemed that it was still different.

Chen Chao looked at the night sky farther away and called out, “They will be killed. Anyone who does this kind of thing won’t escape, every one of them has to die.”

“They all have to die.”

Chen Chao exhaled a breath of stale air. “Not a single one will escape.”

......

......

The night grew deeper.

Weng Quan took Gu Shaofeng out of the city and headed for the Divine Capital.

Chen Chao and Song Lian walked side by side along the street. Although Song Lian was clearly middle-aged, Chen Chao looked even more fatigued.

Song Lian looked somewhat distressedly at this immediate superior. In fact, much of the time, he still regarded this young man before him as one of his own juniors. Besides, he was originally even younger than Weng Quan.

“Luoshui Mountain is merely the abandoned pawn they threw out to take the blame. Since they were going to do this kind of thing, how could they have done it so directly and conspicuously? The guy who did this has some scheming, but he really thinks I’m a fool, doesn’t he?”

Chen Chao rubbed his forehead and smiled. “If Elder Brother was investigating this matter, you’d probably be deceived.”

Song Lian did not refute him, merely smiling. “I don’t have as many twists and turns in my gut as you.”

“But since they pushed Luoshui Mountain out, I’ll just go along with it and play the fool in their eyes this once. No problem. But in private, we still have to investigate properly. If Nandu hadn’t discovered some clues in the Northern Frontier at the beginning, we still wouldn’t have any leads now. By the time of the next great battle, things would become troublesome.”

The cause of the matter was still that there had been something strange about the exchange of information between the General’s Office and Moon Viewing Terrace at the time. Although Xie Nandu had resolved that problem then, the more she thought about it afterward, the more something felt wrong. After investigating further, she discovered that there were already spies from the demon race within the Northern Frontier General’s Office.

Afterward, Xie Nandu drew inferences from one instance and, after a round of deductions, began investigating the officials transporting grain from the Divine Capital to the Northern Frontier, and only then did they uncover Luoshui Mountain.

But at that time, Chen Chao and Xie Nandu had actually already understood that Luoshui Mountain being so easily uncovered meant one thing.

The demons infiltrating Great Liang absolutely would not be just Luoshui Mountain.

“It’s just that the Northern Frontier Great Wall has stood across the desolate north all these years. There shouldn’t be any demons able to make their way south.”

As soon as Song Lian said this, he thought of the Demon Emperor and frowned. “Not everyone can be like the Demon Emperor, right?”

Chen Chao smiled. “Some secret treasures can’t possibly exist only among the human race, can they?”

Song Lian frowned and asked, “Then should I devote all my effort to investigating this matter next?”

Chen Chao shook his head. “I’m afraid next time you’ll have to go North and gamble your life with me on the city wall.”

Chen Chao patted Song Lian on the shoulder.

Song Lian smiled. “A trivial matter.”

After Chen Chao smiled, he returned to the matter from before.

“I plan to hand this matter over to Yun Jianyue.”

Chen Chao said, “Daoism’s methods are complicated and diverse. They have more experience than us when it comes to dealing with demons hiding themselves.”

Song Lian frowned. “For something this important, you’re willing to entrust it to the Infatuation Daoist Temple?”

Chen Chao looked at Song Lian and smiled. “I don’t trust the Infatuation Daoist Temple, but as for A’Yue, it’s very difficult for me not to trust him.”

”Why?”

Song Lian was puzzled.

“Have you ever seen someone bring an outsider along to kill their own martial uncle?” Chen Chao raised his hand and made a gesture. “Even twice.”

Song Lian nodded with a sigh. “Someone like that is indeed very worthy of being entrusted with things.”

Chen Chao smiled. “There is only one A’Yue in the whole world.”